What Was Your “Record Year”?

That’s the story of one of the songs on Eric Church’s surprise album Mr. Misunderstood. It’s called “Record Year.”

It’s about how Church sat around and listened to albums he rediscovered after someone broke his heart. He had Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger, John Lee Hooker’s One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer and then some. He says he’s either gonna get over her or he’s gonna blow out his ears.

When the album came out, Miranda Lambert wasted no time extoling the virtues of this song.

“I’m countin on a needle to save me” … EC #songwriter#recordyear,” she wrote on Instagram with a screen shot of the song.

The last time someone broke my fragile little teenage heart, I had John Cougar’s American Fool, Bob Seger’s Beautiful Loser, the Little River Band’s First Under the Wire, Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty, Dire Straits’ Making Movies and, obviously, Prince’s Dirty Mind to keep me occupied while I felt sorry for myself.

But I wondered what was in everyone else’s “Record Year.”

When I asked some of my friends and associates, I got a very extensive list. Here are a few examples from the array of music that helped people slowly plan their survival with a 3-foot stack of vinyl.